WASHINGTON, D.C . – Law enforcement officials pulled out all the stops with security measures in Washington for the Inauguration, President Jimmy Carter lying in state and the January 6th election certification. They brought in thousands of law enforcement officers and put up miles and miles of fencing. Now that the events are over, most of the barriers and fencing is starting to be removed.
“Oh my gosh,” said Katy Fallas. “It’s been really hard, actually.” Fallas is visiting DC with her family. She said it’s been a journey getting from A to B with all of the fencing around Capitol Hill and the White House.
“We wanted to show yesterday, the whole entire city was shut down the day of the inauguration,” said Fallas. “We wanted to show the kids the White House and we couldn’t even get close. Everything was barricaded.”
Many of these security measures went up right around the new year ahead of three major events on the Hill and in the district: the January 6th election certification, President Jimmy Carter lying in state and President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“All attendees will undergo screenings and checkpoints,” said Matt McCool, Secret Service special agent in charge of Washington, D.C. during a press conference before the inauguration. “More than 30 miles of anti-scale fence will be used for the inauguration.”
“Everywhere we went we had to walk through- you know the airport security type thing and even yesterday when we were walking in certain areas outdoors, they had us walk through that too,” said Fallas.
Most of the barricades and fencing are starting to come down.
With the recent terrorist attack in New Orleans, where a driver rammed a truck into the busy Bourbon Street crowd on New Year’s day and with the two attempted assassinations against President Trump, law enforcement officials pulled out all the stops to secure DC. But most of the barriers and fencing are starting to come down now that the three major events are over. Fallas said the security measures were necessary and good, almost too good.
“I’m actually glad that security has been top notch,” said Fallas. “It’s nerve wrecking because you’re in this place at a specific time where God forbid something could happen.”
